Iran has admitted that it received crucial help from Pakistan with its controversial nuclear programme.

The admission came in Vienna when Iran revealed the extensive foreign sources of help to the United Nations nuclear watchdog only in the past two weeks.

After a year of mounting international alarm that Iran’s interest in nuclear power concealed an attempt to develop nuclear weapons, the regime has admitted that it has gone to great lengths over 18 years to hide its research, The Times, daily reported today.

I’m waiting to hear the phrase “baseless allegations” in response to this. There is of course a suggestion that India has helped Iran develop nuclear technology as have Russia and China. Even if (and its still a big “if”) India did cooperate with Iran, this does not absolve Pakistan of its acts of proliferation. If anything, it adds another feather its its cap of duplicity; using Saudi money to develop the nuclear weapons and sell it to their arch-rivals, Iran. Pakistan’s nuclear goose is cooked in any case.

India and Pakistan must both desist from proliferating these dangerous weapons. Since 1998, India has seen itself as a serious and sober member of the nuclear ‘club’ and it is extremely unlikely that it would indulge in shady proliferation deals. However, Pakistan’s status as a supplier of nuclear technology to all and sundry is only limited by how much pressure the United States and China exerts.

Excerpt from CEIP’s recommendations:
Consider Pakistan not just as an ally in the war on terrorism but also as a serious problem in the struggle to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. Anti-terror concerns should not trump antinuclear ones. The U.S. should help Pakistan overcome its security anxieties about India. But it should not allow Pakistan’s military leaders to feel they are free to resist democracy and develop their nuclear arsenal as long as they chase down members of Al Qaeda.